Friday, January 23, 2009

Spoilers for last night's "30 Rock" coming up just as soon as I badmouth synergy...

"Make Mommy proud of you because you're the best!" -Jack

"Retreat To Move Forward" petered out near the end (even with the use of C&C Music Factory, I expected Liz's self-sacrificing humiliation to be something much grander), and the Tracy/Kenneth plot didn't work at all until it intersected with the Jenna/Frank story, but overall, this was one of the best, funniest episodes of what's been a distressingly uneven season of "30 Rock."

With all the guest stars gone for now, this one made good use of virtually the entire cast(*), including our first trip into the writers' room in a while. Jack and Liz's story, with or without the camp metaphor, was a funny commentary on how close they've become since the pilot, and on how the more traditional, Six Sigma-revering GE execs might react to that. Plus, it had Jack name-checking Judy Blume, and Liz using a robot voice to discuss her "robot penis," so even if the entire episode had been a wasteland, I probably would have loved it.

(*) The one exception, as usual: Pete, who didn't appear at all that I can remember. What has Scott Adsit done to tick off the writing staff? Is he off doing a movie? I need my weekly taste of Hornberger!

Meanwhile, you knew that Jenna and Frank were going to hook up sooner or later, and that there would be an unexpected twist to it. I wasn't that surprised by Frank turning out to be more embarrassed by the whole thing than Jenna, but I was by all the fringe-y office women (Jenna's hairdresser, the elderly Russian cleaning lady) coming out of the woodwork as past Frank conquests. Between that and his and Twofer's obvious pleasure at the Wikipedia prank was a nice use of the outer rims of the show's cast.

I have some interviews to do in a few minutes, so no time to run through the usual list of other things I found funny (Dr. Spaceman not knowing how to say "diabetes," Frank telling Jenna "Your hands are weird," to name two), so go to town.

61 comments:

I've never done improv, but I know that the first rule of improv is not to say "That's not true," to your scene partner. So Jenna saying, "No you don't, Oprah!" (so pleased with herself) to Liz in the flashback in the first scene extra-slayed me.

This was the first ep this season where all the plot lines clicked for me (I seem to be alone in liking the Kenneth/Tracy plot), and I could sit here all day listing the funniest lines. Instead, I'll just ask if anyone remembers what the Six Sigmas represented? All I remember is "Handshakefullness."

Great episode, unlike Alan, I loved the Tracy/Kenneth storyline. Pretty much any storyline that allows Tracy to spout nonsense makes me laugh, and if it involves Kenneth, Dr. Spaceman and a roller foot, that's all the better.

I also loved the Kenneth/Tracy storyline because I could see Kenneth truly worrying about Tracy's health, plus the way he tried to get Tracy to eat healthy was pure Kenneth (and as mentioned above, it allowed for moments of glorious Tracy nonsense like the Larry Bird remark).

Maybe Scott Adsit's too busy with his Adult Swim show to be in all "30 Rock" eps right now? Okay, that's a reach, but I miss Pete!

Jack and Liz at the Six Sigma dealie was tons of fun. "I heard 'Sling Blade'!"

Loved this episode to death, it just really clicked for me. I think my favourite line was Dr. Spaceman's concerned and serious "But, then you'd have to register as a motor vehicle" to Tracy's suggestion that he would be like Rosie from the Jetsons. KILLED me.

agreed on the Kenneth/Tracy storyline not doing much until it intersected with the Frank/Jenna storyline. for whatever reason, their reaction to Jenna as the Hill witch was hilarious(despite the fact that it was fairly predictable-- this was a case of the actor's selling the bit)

Love, LOVED Tina Fey in this episode. She had me laughing in nearly all of her scenes. The best was her psyching herself up before parties in the mirror: "Stop sweating, you stupid bitch!" Which just typing that has me cracking up. I love how full of anger her character is, even towards herself. And Jack makes me want to be a Republican.

I enjoyed the episode, but one thing bugged me -- Jack asking Liz to come to the Six Sigma retreat to have his back seemed out of character. I can forgive it as necessary for the plot, but it just felt weird for Jack to ask Liz to be his backup at a corporate retreat.

OMG! Delurking to say that I haven't laughed that hard at a TV show in a long time. The payoff to the Hill Witch gag was priceless. The hubby and I must have watched that scene four times in a row. Tracy and "K" just sold that scene. Might I say, Legen (wait for it) dary!

This was a fantastic episode. I love that Jack and Liz's relationship has evolved but not *changed*, as so many sitcom duos do.

However, as a Type I diabetic, I was offended by the flippant use of diabetes, not as a punchline, because it's fine to use it as a joke (I, too, loved the "Diabetes repair?" gag), but defining diabetes as a self-inflicted disease.

There are two kinds of diabetes. Type I is an auto-immune disease that has no predictive cause, and the other, Type II, is the "get fat/lose a foot" kind of diabetes that is often the subject of jokes, commonly affecting older people (and yes, African-Americans).

The problem isn't that the jokes in this episode didn't make the distinction (that's asking a lot of a sitcom), but that it seemed to flippantly conflate the aspects of the two diseases.

I'm sure that it's my obvious sensitivity to it, but I am tired of TV shows making diabetes jokes that inaccurately associates me with self-destructive behavior, and reduces the seriousness of the disease to the level of seasonal allergies.

We can and should make those jokes, but imagine if they were about another chronic disease like Parkinson's or MS... it's not that they're not funny, it's that they're not honest.

Ironically enough, another NBC sitcom (Scrubs, now on ABC) gave diabetes to a major character and handled it accurately, while still able to make hilarious jokes about it (including jokes at the character's expense). Of course, that is a medical show, but really.

I mean, are we going to see Tracy dealing with his diabetes? It's not something that goes away, you know?

If Liz's "baby mania" can last more than one episode, surely this should, too, right?

Brutality was my favorite of the Six, followed closely by Play Hard. Liz's version of mirror motivation was genius! I think Dr. Spaceman gets funnier every time I see him. If anyone needs more screen time its him, not the writers. Frank was great this week, but if he disappears for a few episodes I won't mind. I'd much rather have more of Dr. Spaceman.

Did they called Janis Joplin's favorite drink a "Frank schlong?" Can you now say "schlong" in primetime? If someone would confirm this for me I will come over after prom and we can make nachos together.

I also have worked in financial services, and Six Sigma was a really big deal (although we always knew that it was even huger at GE.) Good to know that it was also funny to people who didn't realize it was all based on truth!

I did wonder how NBC/GE bigwigs felt about skewering it so thoroughly!

I have to say the "like a waitress" line killed me, also. Priceless.

Also, a personal laugh-out-loud moment was "What happens in Croton in Hudson, stays in Croton on Hudson," because I have family that lives there...

Where did all of the deep and abiding love for Pete come from? Not to disparage him, but he is WAY down on the list of best and/or funniest characters on this show. Raise your hand if you would trade a Tracy Jordan subplot for a Pete one? At this point, I even rank Jenna higher.

You people remind me of a friend of mine who said he liked the last season of the Sopranos, but was dissapointed because there wasn't enough Artie Bucco.

As I said in one of my earlier reviews this year, I've seen Scott Adsit do live improv at the UCB Theatre in New York, and he is incredibly funny. Nine times out of 10 on 30 Rock, he has to play the straight man -- if he's appearing at all -- but those 10th times (like him attempting to blackmail Jack into a higher per diem rate) tend to be very, very funny.

I live in Corporate hell. I'm a six sigma green belt and it's the dumbest thing in the world. I was spewing milk through my nose this entire episode. "Don't ever put down synergies". It's good to see Frank and the writers again. They've been scenery this whole season. No more scene hogging celebrity cameos anymore!

Let's not go crazy. Jenna is by far the weakest part of the show, though I'm biased because I strongly dislike Jane Krakowski (as an actress, I don't know her personally, I'm sure she's a fine person).

Also, what's wrong with Artie Bucco? Such a pathetic but real character :)

The Jack & Liz story didn't work for me at all. The setup was great and full of potential, but it all fell apart due to character inconsistency for the sake of (unrealized) laughs. When did Liz go from a smart woman who winds up in hilariously awkward situations to just dumb and clueless? Her idiosyncrasies work better when they're tempered with sincerity and some baseline "normal" behavior. Instead, she was reduced to a babbling idiot. Normally, I'd be all into a "Tina Fey rips her shirt open" scene, but by that point it was just awkward and weird, like watching a severely developmentally-delayed stripper.

Much like the Sigmas, the Tracy diabetes story had potential but didn't ever hit its mark, especially after the first couple of gags (white myth, Colorado, Larry Bird).

The Jenna/Frank stuff was great, though. It was nice to see these characters interact for more than a couple lines.

Overall: some good jokes got lost in some bad storylines. Episode felt like it had three writers, two of whom didn't have time to develop their parts beyond the initial concept and a few good zingers.

Because she was planning to convert herself to a Joplin type, I saw the Jenna as the Hill Witch bit coming as soon as Kenneth brought it up, although I didn't know how they'd pull it off until I saw her grab the broom.

Didn't matter. I left out loud when it finally paid off, and that usually never happens because I'm watching it alone in the morning after work. So that was some funny stuff!

I skimmed through the comments and didn't see this mentioned. Forgive me if it has but at one point when they are building the Lego something or other, Liz turns to Jack and says "Always be laughing." Could that have been a sly reference to "Always be closing," his classic line in "Glengarry Glen Ross"? Probably reading too much into it.

That's kind of disappointing, actually. I was hoping people would take Frank and Twofer's antics as a starting point and plug in a whole bunch of other fake facts, but from what little I skimmed, it seems like a bunch of people just entered the "she speedwalked everywhere and was afraid of toilets" joke over and over and over again.

When I worked for Sun Microsystems, Scott McNealy (Sun's CEO) had a man crush on Jack Welsh (or is it Walsh? I can never remember). So, he made up Sun's own version os Six Sigma called Sun Sigma. As far as I know, it's still going strong, although I'm not. I got laid off back in '06. Guess I should have become a "black belt".